TEG Live, the owner of Ticketek, has announced two shows with more 12,000 fans, which will be Australia’s first arena concerts since March 2020 and will be co-promoted with Live Nation.
The two live entertainment giants have teamed up with the New South Wales Government to present The Greatest Southern Nights – two major COVID Safe concerts to be staged at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena.
The event will be headlined by Ocean Alley on November 28 and by Bernard Fanning and Matt Corby on December 5, with each concert hosting more than 6,000 music-lovers in a fully seated, COVID Safe setting.
Tickets for the show are priced at A$91.60 and will go on sale on Monday, November 9.
Geoff Jones, chief executive of promoter TEG, said the Greatest Southern Nights concerts are part of a crucial push to reignite the live industry and thanked the NSW Government and Destination NSW for their “strong leadership” and support.
He said: “These shows are vital for our industry because they will show that we can stage big live concerts safely and that Australians cannot wait to get out and share great live entertainment experiences with their friends and family..
“We have seen the successful and safe return of large crowds to major live sport and it is time for live music to make a return at scale at a world class venue, Qudos Bank Arena, which we will operate in a reduced, COVID Safe capacity for these shows.”
Roger Field, president of co-promoter Live Nation Asia Pacific, said: “After eight long months of zero arena shows, these concerts will see great musicians bring thousands of fans back together. Not only will these two wonderful nights of entertainment deliver significant employment but they are sure to inject a vital economic boost to our industry and the economy.”
In a Q&A with Jones, he tells the story of how he and managing director of TEG Live Tim McGregor brought it to life.
Q: These two concerts will be the first big indoor arena shows in Australia and there has only been a handful of arena shows globally since COVID-19 struck. What was the genesis of these shows?
GJ: When COVID-19 shut down the live industry globally, we convened the Live Entertainment Industry Forum (LEIF) in Australia and spent several months working together to devise a set of very helpful guidelines to assist the return of live entertainment in a structured and methodical way. While these guidelines were developed for the entire live industry, increasingly we saw that major live sporting events and codes were getting the lion’s share of focus and support from Governments, which is somewhat understandable given they mobilised so quickly to protect seasons in mid-flight or international broadcast rights. It seemed to me that the live music sector was at risk of being left behind and I wanted to do something about it.
So, in late April, I called my colleague, Tim McGregor, the Managing Director of TEG Live, and asked him to work on a plan to restart concerts based on the developing COVID Safe requirements of Australia’s public health authorities and the safety guidelines created by LEIF in consultation with those authorities. Initially, we explored (and continue to explore) a number of outdoor concert options as there was a lot of commentary and advice that events in these settings were likely to return sooner. But the LEIF experience made it very clear to me that the live music industry really needs its indoor venues to return to full mode capacity as soon as practicable in order to be financially viable.
TEG owns the biggest indoor arena in Australia, Qudos Bank Arena, and Tim and I thought it would be an incredibly powerful statement to somehow deliver some large-scale concerts in that venue before the end of the year. But we wanted to do it in a collegiate way with the industry, so I reached out to Live Nation Asia-Pacific President, Roger Field, and invited them to join us in this venture. And so it all began to take shape.
Image: Philip Terry Graham / CC0 / Edited for size
Q: I understand you all worked together on the Live Entertainment Industry Forum Guidelines but did you actually expect to co-promote shows together with Live Nation?
GJ: In the current pandemic context and with all the work done together with LEIF, a collaboration just made sense to put the LEIF Guidelines into practice and collectively shine a light on live music by working together to produce The Greatest Southern Nights. We’re supporting the artists, the production suppliers and crew, the event staff and many others, including most importantly, the music fans who have been deprived of arena concerts since March. It’s the sort of industry leadership that we are proud to be a part of.
Q: The New South Wales Government has shown strong support for the live music industry through its Great Southern Nights program with the Australia Record Industry Association (ARIA). So presumably they were keen on the idea?
GJ: The New South Wales Government, in particular Minister for Jobs, Investment and Tourism Stuart Ayres and Destination New South Wales CEO Steve Cox, and ARIA have shown incredible leadership and support for live music and, indeed, when I presented this concept to them, it was warmly received and we got to work immediately. I really have to applaud all three bodies and hope other Governments roll out similar support to get live music moving in their markets.
Q: And so how do the two “Greatest” Southern Nights arena concerts connect with the 1,000 smaller concerts being run under The “Great” Southern Nights moniker?
GJ: The 1,000 gigs for The Great Southern Nights is a superb concept, delivering shows of all shapes and sizes across New South Wales. It will hopefully create a lot of momentum for the industry and joy for fans as they get to see some of their favourite domestic artists in some intimate settings, in a COVID Safe format. So we just thought The Greatest Southern Nights was an excellent complement to the program but, of course, upscaled to the biggest capacity indoor arena in the country – Qudos Bank Arena – again with COVID Safe measures in place.
Q: What are the COVID Safe measures that will be in place at The Greatest Southern Nights concerts?
GJ: The safety of fans, artists and staff is always our top priority and we will work closely with and comply with the evolving requirements of the public health authorities in respect of The Greatest Southern Nights events. First and foremost, Qudos Bank Arena is a 21,000 capacity venue but will be capped at a fully-seated capacity of around 6,200 for these concerts. This will allow for effective implementation of social distancing measures across all parts of the venue, including by way of checkerboard seating in the auditorium. There will also be an extensive cleaning regime and hygiene measures, a fully cashless operation and Ticketek’s fully mobile ticketing platform will assist with efficient ingress and contact tracing if necessary. Again, we will work closely with the public health authorities to implement these and other arrangements deemed necessary at the time to operate on a COVID Safe basis.
Q: OK and you have locked in some great acts for these concerts?
GJ: Yes, we had really overwhelming interest from artists wishing to be a part of these historic shows. We’re thrilled that Ocean Alley, Jack River, Ruby Fields and Jack Botts will play at the 28 November show and we have Bernard Fanning, Matt Corby and Merci, Mercy at the 5 December show. We’re so rapt with these two huge consecutive Saturday nights of live music to close out what has been a very, very tough year for our industry and we want them to provide some hope for a much better year in 2021.
Q: Does this mean we will see more shows at Qudos Bank Arena in this reduced capacity format?
GJ: Possibly but, I can assure you, these concerts do not make a lot of financial sense and that’s not why we are doing it. Firstly, we will be operating with a reduced capacity, which obviously means lower ticket sales. At the same time, we need to use the entire venue, which entails a full deployment of ushers, security and other staff, in addition to all the COVID Safe measures I have mentioned. All of those things cost money. So we have reduced revenue and greater expenses to operate these shows.
Without the generous support from the New South Wales Government and without Qudos Bank Arena being provided on a rent-free basis, these concerts would make even less financial sense (although we are going to explore this very carefully to see what might be feasible as we have some solid ideas).
The bottom line is that these concerts are not designed to show how live music can recommence on a financially sustainable basis. They are intended to act as a circuit breaker to interrupt the near-paralysis that the large concerts industry has been experiencing since COVID arrived; to demonstrate how large indoor concerts can be operated safely and professionally in a COVID world.
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